Petrol Engines VS Diesel Engines: Who Wins in the Long Run?


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Petrol engine vs Diesel engine

Who wins the Race ?

The one who takes care of the engine wins the race/long run , be it petrol /diesel / gas / hybrid .

You can buy brand new petrol/diesel car and stuff up the engine in 3 months by neglecting the services .

As I said before Petrol vs Diesel in here is pretty much necessity vs availability .

We all need vehicle that's our necessity and what we can buy with the present financial status is the only thing available to us. According to one's budget one will buy a car that best suits his needs.


Have you ever seen a guy who wants a Mercedes but ends up getting a Hatch back ?
No right?

So people tend to buy what they think is good for them.

People buy diesel cars because its Cheap and people who travel a lot , think that is cheap form of transport.

People buy petrol cars when they know they don't travel too much and they want no hassle.

If you disregard the cost factor and think of performance let me share some of figures of my car
Car : Nissan Skyline R33 Series II
Year : 1996
Fuel Type : Premium Unleaded 98 octane
Engine : 2.5 Litre 6 cylinder Turbo charged coupled with Front mount intercooler pushing 14 psi into the intake plenum.

Dyno Report : 330hp @14psi

0-100kmph = 4.2 seconds
0-180 kmph = 10 seconds
Top speed = I achieved 200kmph ( No rev limiter, car does over 320 kmph)

To goto work ,I catch Train, Park my car at station which is about 3 minutes drive .

This is my weekend car , 16 years old car, I don't drive much during the week as I
don't have time.

We all call ourselves performance/car enthusiasts but still worry too much when it comes to the type of fuel.

As I said before diesel cars are our needs out there , if you want to call yourself a performance enthusiast , there is more then just a petrol car.

No offense to anyone [:)]
 
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Dear All. Nice discussion and an unending one. So let me add my share of confusion. All friends are correct in stating their opinion. The choice of fuel depends upon a number of factors, some of which have been posted in these posts. Definitely, how much one travels is a pertinent criterion. As we all know the difference in the initial cost of both types of cars is about 1 lakh or even more. One can find lots of calculation showing advantage of one type of car over the other. People buying a diesel car just because it gives better FE etc. may not be a good idea.

I have two cars. I bought M&M Verito D4 (Diesel) after considering all factors. My yearly running is more than 20000 Kms and the best part is my TA is paid by other universities and organisations. I have one Alto still giving 17 Kms/ltr in city and 20 or more on highways. Alto I use for local trips in Shimla. There are a number of persons in my locality who bought both types of cars but do not use them much. It is sheer wastage of money. I have been advising my friends that if they go for some long drive only once a month or so, then do not buy a car rather hire a taxi. This is cheaper and tension free solution. This is what some of the rich persons have been doing US when I was there. My suggestion is to go in for a car on the basis of yearly usage. Comments are welcome.
 
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The discussion should be non biased and with figures and facts differentiating between older engines and new age engines and its performance.

I thing Vipul & Codeman are missing here in this thread [:)] to explain the petrol engines
Few advantages i would like to highlight on the favor of diesel engines

1. Long life : Diesel gets into the engine as liquid and not as almost gaseous as in the case of petrol. So diesel itself serves as a lubricant inside the engine reducing the wear and tear. Think of long distance buses and trucks which clock lacs of kms in few months and we still see very old trucks on the highways.
.

Yes, we need to be unbiased.
AFA, long life of diesel car is concerned, The new Euro 4 {? Bs4}diesel comes with low sulfer content. The higher sulfer which was present in previous EURO 3 and Euro 2 diesels was an useful' lubricant and anti corrosive' for the engines hence the life span of the engine was good.
But the procedure which is used by oil refinary to remove the sulfer from EURO 3 diesel so as to convert it in to low sulfer i.e. Euro 4 diesel also removes aromatic substances from the diesel inevitabily.
This has got two effects on modern crdi/crde/ddis/qjet mjet.... diesel engine s.

1st) more wear and tear of engine due to lack of sulfer (natural lubricant), now oil co. are developing some additives (to be added by car owner)to counter this .

2) corrosion and leakage of fuel tank and fuel injectors.


Reduced sulfer content of modern petrol doesn't bother much to petrol engine as they do not use the fuel as a lubricant. But the corrosion part remains there.
Recently a Honda JAZZ (petrol)owner posted on TAI that he found that its petrol tank is made up of ' fibre'. It supports above mentioned facts.

So longevity of modern diesel engines will be questioned in future.
 
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This Petrol/Diesel(Which is better) argument will never end. IMO, New technologies are available for both (like Direct injection etc) and both are good in their own way and this depends on the region. In US, petrol cars are prefered where diesel is bit costlier than petrol (though this alone could not be the reason). In India, diesel car is preferred as it is more fuel efficent and petrol is much costlier than Diesel (90% of people are of 'Kitna Deta Hai' type). Mileage factor plays a lot here in this case.
 
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@o..x, It is not just the cost of diesel car or the fuel matters here.We are discussing reliability , cost effectiveness, owners satisfaction in long run meaning from first day till the engine nears end of its life.
Yes cost of fuel is one important factor here., but ,is the diesel engine better if someone is ready to pay more .?
 
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Interesting and pertinent question. Should you buy an oil burner if your usage is less than 1500 kms/month?
In terms of engines I think diesel tech has come a long long way. IIRC diesel engines are much cleaner compared to petrol if looking at same standards like Euro 4 or 5.

Anyway in terms of NVH and free-revving there is no beating for Petrol hearts. I had a swift and it was so easy to revv it hard and feel the push.

Age wise there should not be much difference between these 2 variants. If maintained properly both should be able to give a long life.

Now coming to the economics of it, I think that is where we Indians are mislead. Just because of peer pressure and short thinking, people buy diesel when they can get better petrols in the same price or even less. The daily pinch at bunks is more unnerving that spending additional amount in the first go.
Hi Friend, i am totally agree with you.

If we maintain properly both engines have a long life.
 
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In terms of engines I think diesel tech has come a long long way. IIRC diesel engines are much cleaner compared to petrol if looking at same standards like Euro 4 or 5.
[:)]
Nope, the diesel engines are suffering from reduction in lifespan due to Euro 4,5 norms due to leaks in crdi fuel injectors,, loss of lubrication, and rusting of fuel storage systems.
 
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@Tornado,

Your claim is not correct and I feel little bit premature. Please post with some proofs of the same. It is the diesel era in India right now and just unstoppable !!

Do you think that the implementers of Euro 4 & 5 diesel doesn't think about these problems, if so all the diesel vehicles will come to a halt[:)]
 
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Here 99% of the cabs / tourist vehicles and buses are running on diesel
and they cross 1000 + kms with in weeks time, and most of them doesn't underwent even minor engine overhaul

just look at the very badly maintained Govt Diesel busses do you still believe Latest Diesel engines are still bad
 
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from what i have seen, across india, most chauffeurs especially the older ones, learnt how to drive on a diesel ambassador or truck or a similar vehicle. if you have a chauffeur driven car, it is better that it's a diesel because they do not really respect the delicateness required to handle the throttle of a petrol car, nor do they understand that petrol cars are not to be revved to high rpm in lower gears. most of them also look for torque thats not there, when they try to go over speedbumps in 2nd gear when the poor maruri (or santro or city) is nearly at a standstill and begging to be downshifted to first gear.
 
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@Tornado,

Your claim is not correct and I feel little bit premature. Please post with some proofs of the same. It is the diesel era in India right now and just unstoppable !!

Do you think that the implementers of Euro 4 & 5 diesel doesn't think about these problems, if so all the diesel vehicles will come to a halt[:)]
My claim is postmature infact, I am bit late ,proofs are available at thread started by fellow TAIan Surfer , Difference Between BS-3 And BS-4 Models in Techie garage section.One can copy any sentence from my post on that thread and paste it on google search window and exaustive volumes of proofs come forward.

Implementers of Euro 4 had underestimated these problems in view of the benefits to environment.

All diesel vehicles will not come to halt, but they will come to halt little earlier demanding replacement.

Here 99% of the cabs / tourist vehicles and buses are running on diesel
and they cross 1000 + kms with in weeks time, and most of them doesn't underwent even minor engine overhaul

just look at the very badly maintained Govt Diesel busses do you still believe Latest Diesel engines are still bad
Latest diesel engines are not bad, it is the euro 4 diesel's deleterious effects on the latest engines which is reducing their life span.

from what i have seen, across india, most chauffeurs especially the older ones, learnt how to drive on a diesel ambassador or truck or a similar vehicle. if you have a chauffeur driven car, it is better that it's a diesel because they do not really respect the delicateness required to handle the throttle of a petrol car, nor do they understand that petrol cars are not to be revved to high rpm in lower gears. most of them also look for torque thats not there, when they try to go over speedbumps in 2nd gear when the poor maruri (or santro or city) is nearly at a standstill and begging to be downshifted to first gear.
It is the modern diesel engine which requires intelegence and delicacy to drive it.Almost all car driving school teach to drive petrol car. Almost all are devoid of knowledge and skills required to handle and utilize the turbo, get maximum driving pleasure(pickup, torque) without harming the engine and FE.
 
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Am sure at the end the conclusion is based on how we maintain the car.

but still even the badly maintained diesel engines are running well in long term, where as i haven't heard such stories on petrol engines at least in India because my country rough use (commercial )sector is 100 % diesel monopolized

Adding to this the marginal spare / maintenance cost (gap) difference between diesel and petrol is reduced much as comparing to the older amby days to the Latest TDCI or DTSI Days.

am sure sooner it will be dearer except the rude govt tax,

environmental sake: on ford first gear.pdg i have read the below lines

PeTrol liFTs iTs GaMe
Automakers have gone the extra mile to
make conventional petrol vehicles more
fuel-efficient than before. They have made
the car body lighter and used technologies
such as turbocharging to deliver the same
amount of power with fewer cylinders.
The good: Such vehicles are readily available
and don’t cost more.
The bad: Petrol engines generally emit
around 10 per cent more carbon dioxide than
diesel.

ModerN diesel
Think diesel, and the fi rst thing that springs
to mind might be the sputtering old bus
spewing black fumes across town. But
many modern diesel engines come with a
particulate trap to help prevent emissions of
sooty particulates. Diesel engines are also
oft en more economical than petrol engines;
that’s why they emit less CO2. And new
“common rail” diesel motors consistently
top fuel economy rankings.
 
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I think everything depends on the maintainence. I have used sevral Petrol cars for upto 3~4lakh kms with no problems at all. My previous ride was a Honda City .
Now i use a diesel swift . Its done some 98k kms still no issues.
But its all about maintainence. I have always used fully sythetic engine oil in both my vehicles from the start. And servicing it every 3 months. I know its too much but i believe it keeps all problems away. More like preventive maintainence.
 

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